Losing Patience With the Pope

By

L. Brent Bozell III

March 19, 2013 - 11:42pm

Many millions of Catholics around the world were joyous with the naming
of a new pope – a holy man from the Third World, no less. Even in
choosing his name, Pope Francis is emphasizing a devotion to the poor,
and a humility in his clothing and manners.

The liberal media should be lapping this up. There was an accurate
recounting of the global rejoicing, especially in Argentina. There were
hopeful words about his pastoral modesty. But as the day came for the
Pope to be installed, the natural secular liberal nastiness toward the
oldest Christian faith bubbled up in demands for “tolerance” and women’s
liberation.

On the March 18 “Today,” co-host Matt Lauer noted the simplicity of
Pope Francis -- and then tried to suggest it was extreme. “So a lot of
people like this move to simplicity, a move to the poor. Is it possible
to take it too far?” If Benedict enjoyed revisiting the more regal
historic Vatican garb, that was extreme. More humility? Also quite
possibly extreme.

This is the kind of general hostility to religion that makes people
turn the channel. The networks try to restrain themselves when the
ever-necessary eyeballs are flocking to the TV set to see the Vatican
news. But seemingly they can't hold out forever. Ultimately they revert
to sounding like jerks.

All three of NBC’s regular “Today’s Professionals” panelists agreed.
Advertising man Donny Deutsch insisted this was a victory of style over
substance. “It's great to do all of this style stuff, man of the people.
But, and we've talked about this ad nauseam, until the Catholic Church
starts to address what we all know are the real issues the Church has,
which is the real concern of the people, this stuff doesn't matter. It
doesn't matter.”

Liberals demand that the Catholic Church bow to their infallible
instincts. You can’t just dress humbly, preach the gospel, and serve the
poor. You have to grant indulgences to the feminists, the homosexuals,
and the contraceptive industry.

NBC medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman lectured the new pope
that “poverty without birth control begets more poverty....this is a
chance to take the humility and the poverty and say now we're really
going to talk about this in a civilized way and move it forward.”
Deutsch added: “And we can talk about tolerance with gays and attitudes
towards women.” Snyderman threw in “And women in the Church.”

If only the Vatican had thought of that.

Is there anything funnier than a couple of pompous NBC millionaires lecturing the pope about poverty and humility?

One of the last times Snyderman addressed Catholics came during her
short-lived MSNBC daytime show in 2009. She was furious anyone would
object to funding abortion in Obamacare. “The Catholic bishops appearing
and having a political voice seems to be a most fundamental violation
of [separation of?] church and state.” Snyderman is an Episcopalian, so
she thinks <ital>her<ital> church lecturing America for gay
and female bishops and gay marriage and abortion rights would never
breach the wall of church-state separation. There’s no wall of
separation needed, just a hug of ideological purity.

On Monday night, the networks exploited Pope Francis meeting amiably
with the leftist president of his home country. On ABC’s “World News,”
reporter Ron Claiborne described the two sides of a cultural war:
"Cristina Kirchner stands for a new view of a changing world-- embracing
gay marriage, sex education in schools, free contraceptives in
hospitals." He added, "But when [Pope Francis] was a cardinal in
Argentina, Kirchner described his social views as medieval." Claiborne
didn't call Kirchner a leftist. The code word for leftist is “new,” as
in “modern and fashionable.” Claiborne warned the new pope would lose
the current good feeling, since "the world is just beginning to learn is
how conservative he is on social issues."

The world is shocked. The Pope turned out to be Catholic.

In case viewers didn't get the point, anchor Diane Sawyer repeated that
the Argentinian president "once called his views medieval." On “NBC
Nightly News,” reporter Anne Thompson checked the same rhetorical boxes:
"As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the Pope opposed many social programs
that Kirchner endorsed, including gay marriage and free
contraception....She, in turn, had accused him of holding positions that
she said were medieval, harkening back to the Inquisition.”

This is how silly these TV-news attacks are: President Obama opposed
same-sex marriage until last May. Why was it not “medieval” and like the
Inquisition for Obama to hold that position in 2012?

The obvious difference is that the Pope will not change his position
with secular media pressure, like Obama did. Everyone who will bow to
the libertine Left is honored. Those who won’t are just hopelessly
gauche, crossing their own foreheads on the ash heap of history.